Iran urges UN to hold US accountable for fighter jets' aggression

Tehran, Aug 8, IRNA - Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi in a letter urged the United Nations to hold accountable the US for its fighter jets' aggression against Iranian passenger plane in the Syrian airspace. Iran expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies, the letter reads. “A Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route from Tehran to Beirut on July 23 “was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted” by two US F-15 fighter jets while traveling through internationally specified air corridors in Syria’s airspace,” according to Western media Takht Ravanchi told UN. “In reaction to the offensive and hazardous maneuverings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers’ lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers onboard,” he added. In line with provisions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Iran’s civil aviation organization contacted Syrian authorities and called for “a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident, he noted. He said Iranian authorities also launched an investigation after the plane returned from Beirut. The results of both investigations will be released “after the revision and finalization of the collected data and information” by both teams, Ravanchi said. “It is obvious that the act by the United States fighter jets is a flagrant violation of the aviation security and freedom of civil aviation reflected in the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its relevant annexes as well as an infringement of the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation,” Takht Ravanchi noted. “It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behavior,” he reiterated. Mahan Air passenger plane was en route Beirut, Lebanon, when it was threatened by two US F-15 military jets over Syria. The pilot of the Iranian plane says when he was talking to the pilots of the fighter jets to ask them to keep distance, they had said that they were American. Although the Iranian plane finally landed in Beirut Airport unharmed, some of its passengers were immediately taken to hospital. Earlier, Iran Civil Aviation Organization lodged protest with International Civil Aviation Organization over the US aggression on Iranian passenger plane, calling for urgent action. Based on Annex 13 to Chicago Convention, the US military jets breached the international convention concerning civil aviation. Iran Civil Aviation Organization called on the Syrian Government to hold inquiry into the US aggression promptly and precisely.